Pokemon Pearl Nuzlocke: Love Heals
by charmed7293
Summary: Kylie's going to get her first Pokémon tomorrow and can't wait to start battling gyms, but her mother seems to have other plans.  But she's not the only obstacle in her way, and certainly not the greatest . . .   description continued inside
1. Chapter 1

Hey, wats up! So, this is my first attempt at a Nuzlocke. I started it several weeks ago on vacation and have been taking notes in my journal since then. This is really long (I'm sorry) and I'm planning on picking up the pace (don't worry), but there was a lot of foreshadowing and introducing to be done here (so pay attention!).

Description: Kylie's going to get her first Pokémon tomorrow and can't wait to start battling gyms, but her mother seems to have other plans. But she's not the only obstacle in her way, and certainly not the greatest... Haunted with memories of her father, challenged by a strange organization, and making friends she tells herself she doesn't want Kylie gets much more than she bargained for when she goes exploring at Lake Verity.

I like to dedicate my stories to people who either helped me a lot with them, or inspired me to write them in the first place. This time, there are two people this dedication goes to. The first is my Great Aunt Rose. You are like a third grandmother to me and you have no idea how much I loved you. The second is LyneMuffins, who's Nuzlocke inspired me to do a Nuzlocke in written form. Thank you soooooooooo much for reading what I've written and telling me that the crap I come up with is actually good!

I didn't describe the characters in the story because it kinda annoys me when that's in a story. Don't know why. But here's a little description of them:  
>-Kylie is my OC for this fic. She had shortish black hair and dark blue eyes. She's a tomboy and her favorite color is light blue.<br>-Aiden is the rival from the game, so everyone should already know and love him!  
>-Lucas is the male player character, based on Professor Rowan's lab assistant if you chose to play as a girl.<br>-Skyla is more or less based off Dawn, at least the idea of her. She has strawberry blonde hair and green eyes. Right now she's kinda a Mary Sue, but bear with me.

My rules:  
>-Must catch first Pokémon in each area.<br>-Once a Pokémon faints, it's dead. (I'm gonna permanently box mine for now because I'm gonna be too much of a wimp to release them.)  
>-Must nickname all Pokémon.<br>-No duplicates. If I have that specific Pokémon then I can't catch another one, but if it evolves then I can catch the pre-evolved form or if it faints I can catch another one. (I mainly used this rule because Bidoofs and Geodudes are EVERYWHERE in Sinnoh!)  
>-No repels in new areas.<br>-No catching legendaries.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

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><p>"That concludes our special report, 'Search for the Red Gyarados!' Brought to you by Jubilife TV on Nationwide Net! See you next week, same time, same channel!"<p>

Even as the screen faded to black, then lit up again for an obnoxious PokéMart commercial, Kylie still sat inches from the screen, her eyes wide from her excitement during the program. She shoved another handful of popcorn into her mouth from the bowl on her lap. Not even paying attention to the weather update that was now playing on the screen, Kylie thought about what it would be like to find a red Gyarados, or any other Pokémon that was differently colored.

'_It would be soooooooooo __**cool**_!' she thought. '_Oh Arceus, I'm starting to sound like Aiden, drawing out my "so"s._' A smile appeared on her face at the thought of her blonde-haired best friend and neighbor. She dug her hand into the bowl to grab more popcorn, but her fingers scraped the bottom, only finding a few unpopped kernels. The smile fell from her face as she looked into the nearly empty bowl. It then completely disappeared when she heard her mother calling to her from downstairs.

"Kylie! Dinner's ready and you better not have spoiled your appetite with that popcorn I know you snuck up there."

Sighing, she stood up from her cross-legged position in front of the TV in her room and, taking the bowl with her, headed downstairs. It slightly surprised her that her mother had noticed she had brought the popcorn upstairs; she was usually so absorbed in watching the contests on TV, but the delicious smell of popcorn was hard not to notice.

Hoping her mother's observant streak would not continue and catch on that the bowl was empty of all edible pieces of popcorn, Kylie placed the bowl in the sink and sat down at the table. Her mother stood at the stove, putting whatever she had cooked onto plates.

"What were you watching on TV, hun?" her mother asked. Not even waiting for an answer, she continued talking as she put Kylie's plate in front of her and sat in her own seat. "I bet it was the final round of the Johto Grand Festival! Wasn't it extremely exciting? It certainly had me at the edge of my seat; I cannot believe that little Drew didn't win, he's so handsome! I just wish that I could've gone to judge it – but I couldn't miss my little girl's thirteenth birthday, could I! It's like you're all grown up now: you're going to get a starter Pokémon and go on your own journey and all that. But you won't miss me too much because you'll see plenty of me during your contests! I'll be judging them this year! Isn't this all exciting!"

Kylie was extremely annoyed by her mother babbling at this point. After being dragged around from contest hall to contest hall in one region to the next, she was sick of contests. Her mother always thought she was going to be a Coordinator like herself, but her constant "immersing" of her daughter in the "beautiful, exciting world of contests!" had the opposite effect of what she wished. Kylie now despised anything and everything to do with contests, from the ridiculous costumes the coordinators were forced to dress up in to the noisy and hectic rushing that occurred backstage. That also included her other neighbor, Skyla, who was almost as obsessed with contests as her mother, who occasionally forced the two to hang out together. Kylie didn't completely understand her mother's objective with that torture; she had already made it clear numerous times that she wanted to be a Trainer and challenge gyms.

Just as she was about to tell her mother for the hundredth time that she wasn't at all interested in become a Coordinator, the phone rang. "I'll get it!" Kylie said quickly, grateful to change the conversation. She jumped up and grabbed the phone off its hook. "Hello?"

"Kylie!" Aiden's familiar voice squealed her name over the connection. "Did you see it! Wasn't it soooooooooo awesome! I would've called you as soon as it was over, but my mom made me wait because you were probably having dinner. I waited as long as I could but I needed to talk to you! It stinks that they didn't find it, but it's definitely there. I bet I could find it if I went to Johto! The only other thing I didn't like was the narrator! They should've got Morgan Freeman to do it. But other than that it was soooooooooo amazing! Anyways, my mom is yelling at me to let you go back to eating because you are probably still having dinner, but come over as soon as you're finished! I'll fine you $1 million if you don't! Okay? Bye!"

Kylie just started at the phone. The only thing she had managed to say to him was "hello". She sighed; he was worse than her mother.

"I'm going to assume that was Aiden because you didn't get a chance to say anything," her mother remarked from the table with a smile.

"Yeah," Kylie responded as she hung up the phone and sat back down. "I'm going over as soon as I'm finished."

"All right, just don't stay out too late, you have a big day ahead of you tomorrow!"

"I won't," Kylie assured her mother as she quickly finished her spaghetti and meatballs, wanting to hang out with her best friend as soon as possible. Though he was a loudmouth that never shut up, annoying her to no end every time they were together, she loved hanging out with him and couldn't imagine anyone else as her best friend.

As soon as she put her plate in the sink, she dashed for the door.

"Wait!" her mother called. Kylie turned towards her expectantly. "You should invite Skyla to hang out with you two!"

Kylie's spirit dropped. She really didn't want to deal with _her_ at the moment, not that she ever wanted to deal with her in the first place. But she could imagine her mother's argument when she refused and the inevitable phone call to Skyla's mother that informed her of Kylie and Aiden's plans to hang out that was sure to come after that. Deciding that it was easier to just give in at the beginning, she said, "Fine."

"Oh, wonderful! Just give a little knock on her door on your way! And, as always, stay out of the tall grass. I know you are excited to get your first Pokémon tomorrow, but you can wait just one more day, right?"

Her mother's enthusiastic smile and the mention of the long awaited day brought a smile to Kylie's face as well. "Okay, mom."

Aiden paced back and forth in front of his house. "Where are you, Kylie! Why are you soooooooooo late all the time!" He almost couldn't stand it and the only thing that kept him from running off by himself was that this was something he wanted – needed – to do with Kylie. He only hoped that she hadn't been forced to bring _her_ along.

He finally saw her approaching his house, but, apparently, fortune wasn't on his side. Not only did he have to wait soooooooooo long for Kylie to come, but she had brought _her_ with her. Kylie didn't seem too thrilled about it either, but Skyla seemed to be perfectly happy trailing after the other girl with a smile on her face.

When he thought about it, Aiden wasn't exactly sure why he disliked Skyla so much. She was a nice enough girl; though not really someone he was likely to be friends with (she wasn't nearly adventurous enough and was far to prissy) she was someone that he would normally tolerate. He just guessed that the fact that Kylie held so much animosity towards her was the primary factor.

"There you are, _Kylie_!" he greeted her, putting a little extra emphasis on her name to let the other girl know that she wasn't being greeted. "You are soooooooooo lucky that I don't actually make you pay your fines for being late because you would owe me like a billion dollars by now!"

"You're lucky I don't punch you out every time you say you're gonna fine me because you would need all that money to pay your hospital bills," Kylie delivered back smoothly. Unfortunately, _she_ interrupted their banter.

"So what are we going to do?" Skyla asked innocently. She didn't seem to notice that the other two were completely ignoring her – that or she simply didn't care.

"Well, me and Kylie are going to Lake Verity to look for rare Pokémon!"

"What!" both girls exclaimed at the same time.

Kylie couldn't believe how reckless her best friend was being. She knew he could be adventurous, but going to Lake Verity alone was dangerous, not to mention completely pointless because Starly, Bidoof, and Magikarp were pretty much the only Pokémon anyone ever saw there.

"You can't go there! Wild Pokémon live there; what if you get attacked? You have no means to defend yourself!" Skyla tried to reason with him.

"What are you scared of going?" Aiden mocked her.

"Ummm . . . no, I just . . ."

Kylie caught on to what Aiden was doing. Skyla wouldn't follow them to the lake; they could have some fun and get away from the annoying girl at the same time! She wouldn't dare tell on them either. While she did still think it was dangerous to go near the tall grass, she was desperate to get away from Skyla and it was the perfect opportunity.

"Well, then I guess we'll just go without you." Kylie didn't even wait for Skyla to finish her sentence or form a response before she headed for the lakefront that was just outside the town.

"There's the spirit, Kylie!" Aiden exclaimed as he jogged after her.

When the pair reached the very edge of town, Kylie glanced back. Skyla was still standing near Aiden's house, just staring at them with a nervous look on her face. Smirking, she turned away from her and kept walking forward with Aiden at her side.

"Wasn't my plan to escape her soooooooooo perfect!"

"Yes, Aiden, it was absolutely flawless."

"Was that sarcasm?"

"Did it sound like it?"

"Was _that_ sarcasm?"

"You tell me."

"Now _that_ was definitely sarcastic."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Not anymore!"

Kylie laughed at her friend's whining. She loved confusing him. However, she found herself to be the confused one when they arrived at the shore of the lake. Two people she had never seen before – an old man and a boy about her age – were looking out over the lake. The old man babbled something about sensing something different about the lake to the younger kid, who seemed to patiently explain that there wasn't anything there.

"Fine then. Lucas, we're going back to the lab," the old man said as he started to walk purposefully into the lake.

"Gaah! Professor, the lab's back this way! In Sandgem Town, remember?" "Lucas" yelled, grabbing the professor's shoulder before he could get his feet too wet. "Maybe being away four years was four years too long . . ." he muttered exasperatedly, more to himself than anyone else.

'_That guy's a professor_?' was all that Kylie could think at the moment, staring at the peculiar scene in front of her.

"Oh, right. Of course! Off we go then." The Professor rapidly turned around and literally began marching towards Sandgem Town, which was unfortunately in Kylie and Aiden's direction. "At attention, soldiers!" he commanded the two young teens as he gave them a salute and walked in between them. Neither knew exactly how to respond to that gesture.

Lucas hid his face with his hands. '_This is absolutely __**mortifying**_!' he thought before chasing after the Professor. "I'm really sorry about him," he apologized to the pair. They looked about thirteen, the same age as him – the age they would start their Pokémon journey. He sincerely hoped that they were not the two that were supposed to receive their first Pokémon from the Professor tomorrow. "He just got off a very long flight and he's a little loopy from the jet lag. Please ignore anything that just happened!"

He thought he heard the girl mutter, "senile old bat", but it was quickly covered by the boy proclaiming, "It's okay! We totally understand! Umm, you might want to go catch him."

Lucas looked to see the Professor, still marching, already far ahead of him. "Oh, no! Professor, wait up!"

"Hurry up, cadet! Or we will be late to join the fight!"

Kylie stared after the odd pair. "That was the most bizarre thing that I've ever seen." She was snapped out of her staring when Aiden grabber her arm and dragged her to the edge of the water, right through some tall grass. "Aiden! Wha-"

"Look what they left behind," Aiden said with a triumphant smile on his face, pointing to something on the ground.

Kylie bent down to find a briefcase lying in the grass. "That old guy probably didn't even realize that he left it here and the kid was too worried about him to remember it."

"Yeah and that kid called the old guy a professor . . ."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I think so!"

"That there's probably Pokémon –"

"Right behind you!" Aiden's eyes widened and he pointed behind her.

"No, Aiden – in the bag," she patiently corrected and pointed down at said object on the ground next to her, knowing he was playing a joke on her.

"Kylie, there's really wild Starly behind you!" Aiden pointed more wildly.

"Stop trying to scare me!" Kylie scolded him, but glanced over her shoulder just to be sure. All the Starly she had seen until that moment had been happy Starly, flying around in the sky or hopping around the ground, always happily. She always thought of them as rather cute. All those kinds of thoughts flew out the window as she looked at the two behind her. They looked absolutely bull about something and seemed to be directing their anger at her and her best friend. Her mouth fell open and she froze.

Suddenly, Aiden opened the bag and shoved it in front of her. "Quick, take a PokéBall! We have to battle them!"

She dug her hand around the bag, until her hand wrapped around an orange-sized sphere. _Got one_! she thought, withdrawing her hand to reveal . . . an actual orange. "You've got to be kidding me! What the hell!" she yelled staring at the fruit in her hand, decided that she now hated anything to do with orange – the flavor, the color, anything!

"Try again!" Aiden urged her, glancing nervously at the Starly.

This time, they both plunged their hands into the bag to grab a much-needed PokéBall. Kylie blushed slightly as their hands bumped together in the confined space, though she wasn't sure exactly why. She finally found a smaller sized sphere and pulled it out. It was a condensed PokéBall. As she had to do was press the white button and it would expand to its usable size. That was exactly what she did and with a cry of, "Go! PokéBall!" she threw it.

A little green turtle exploded out of the ball with a burst of bright white light. "Turtwig!"

"Turtwig is the grass type starter! What good will that do against a flying type like Starly!" Kylie complained. She was glad that the only good thing about being forced to spend hours sitting in contest halls could be put to use. While her mother was judging or performing, she would read guidebooks about Pokémon and since so much of her time was spent in that situation she had read a *_lot_* of guidebooks. She could easily identify the type of nearly any Pokémon and then determine what type would be best to counter it. Unfortunately for her, no type that would easily counter flying types was ready available at the moment and the type she did have was weak to them!

She was dragged out of her musing at her misfortunes by the Tiny Leaf Pokémon, who had just taken a tackle from one of the Starly. It landed near her feet, quickly got up, and hid behind her legs. "Twig," it whimpered, shaking slightly.

Kylie felt like doing the same exact thing as the Turtwig, until she heard Aiden calling to her. "Kylie! Don't just stand there. You've got to fight!" The PokéBall he had thrown contained the fire type starter – Chimchar – who looked raring to go as it jumped from one leg to the other in anticipation of the fight.

'_That's easy for you to say_,' Kylie thought. '_You picked a Pokémon that actually wants to fight!_'

"Come on, Turtwig, you've gotta fight. If you don't the Starly is gonna get all of us," she tried to coax the small green Pokémon, but it didn't seem to be working. She bent down to its level to say something else, but she caught movement from the corner of her eye. The Starly wasn't as patient as her in getting the Turtwig to fight and had decided to charge at Kylie instead. She gasped in fear and threw her arms up to protect her face as she fell and landed on her butt.

"Turtwig!" the grass type cried angrily as it tackled the charging Starly. The Starling Pokémon was thrown backwards from the force of the attack. Despite that, it was up quickly and looked ready to charge again.

Kylie moved her arms down as she realized the Turtwig had moved into action to save her. She smiled and gave the Turtwig a command, "Alright, tackle it one more time to scare it off!"

The green Pokémon was able to hit the Starly before it had the chance to start moving again. Apparently, Turtwig's two sudden attacks were enough to convince the Starly that it didn't want to hang around. It twitted something to its companion, who was locked in battle with Aiden's Chimchar, and the two quickly sped off to find an easier target to bully.

"Chimchar!" the Chimp Pokémon called after the pair, shaking its tiny fist as well. Aiden laughed at the Pokémon's antics and it quickly responded to the sound of his voice, running over to him and climbing up to his shoulder. He grabbed the Pokémon in a hug before holding it up at arm's length and spinning around in a circle. "Great job, little buddy!" he laughed.

Kylie had never seen a smile so big appear on Aiden's face. Leaving the two to their celebrating, she looked at her own little warrior. Apparently, the adrenaline from battle was wearing off and the poor thing was shaking again. "Hey, it's okay," she soothed as she picked the Turtwig up and the shaking stopped "That's right. Everything's fine now." It immediately seemed to calm down, but she was quickly proved wrong when it jumped out of her arms and bit her on the head. "Aaaarggghhh!" she called out, the unexpected action taking her completely by surprise.

"I think that means it likes you!" Aiden smiled at her, still holding the Chimchar in his arms.

"Yeah, it does mean that, unfortunately," a voice said behind them. The group quickly turned around to see Lucas standing in front of the exit, arms crossed and a stern expression on his face. The Turtwig immediately jumped off of Kylie's head and hid in her arms.

"'Unforunately'? What the hell's that supposed to mean!" Kylie demanded to know.

"Those Pokémon were supposed to be for trainers who are starting their journey tomorrow. Now that you've battled with them, we can't give them their new trainers!"

"It's not like we meant to use them! We got attacked by wild Pokémon. What, did you expect us to just sit here and let them maul us!"

"No, but –"

"There is no but. What's done is done." Kylie normally would have just gone with the flow in situation like this, but she was growing kind of attached to the little guy and wasn't about to let him go so easily.

"I just have one question. Would you have used the Professor's Pokémon if you weren't attacked by wild Pokémon? Would you have taken those Pokémon for your own without a second thought about who they might really belong to!" Lucas stomped up to the two other teenagers and grabbed the bag that was at their feet. He shook it in their faces. "Did you really think we would forget the starter Pokémon – Pokémon that give kids a chance to live out their dreams!" By the end of his rant, Lucas was full out yelling. He wasn't sure why he was so angry; it was like his emotions were out of control. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. '_Come on, calm down. Stop acting like some girl during her time of the month_,' he chided himself. Turning away from the gawking pair, he simply said, "I'm gonna just give the last remaining Pokémon back to the Professor. Maybe he'll know what to do about this – what to say to those kids who are coming tomorrow."

As the young teen stalked away, Kylie looked at Aiden. He was staring after the other boy in shock. "Kylie, he doesn't know that we are the trainers who are supposed to be coming tomorrow! If he goes and tells the Professor what he thinks happened, he could be in big trouble. And it would be all our fault." Aiden felt himself getting oddly choked up.

Kylie also felt herself feeling more for the situation than she usually would. For some reason, she couldn't allow the boy to suffer because of her and Aiden's mistake. "Yeah, let's go."

They ran to catch up to Lucas and the Professor. They found them right at the crossroads to Twinleaf and Sandgem. " . . . and I'm really sorry, Professor. I never meant for this to happen," Lucas was saying as he handed the only remaining PokéBall to the Professor.

"Never meant for the Pokémon to get returned to the PokéBall? AHAHHAHAHHAH! Lucas, my boy, that's supposed to happen! Don't worry, you didn't kill it!" the Professor tried to comfort the boy and put a reassuring arm around his shoulders.

"Argh! Professor! That's not what I mean at all – that doesn't even have anything to do with what I was talking about!"

"What he meant was that we used the Pokémon without permission," Aiden stepped in to help, "and he was really worried about the two kids who were supposed to get the Pokémon tomorrow. But he misunderstood that part: we _are_ the kids who were supposed to get their Pokémon tomorrow. So no harm done, right?"

"What! You are!" Lucas exclaimed. '_Oh Arceus, now they'll never take the Professor seriously after seeing him like __**that**__!_'

"Of course no harm was done! The PokéBall is an item designed to comfortably store Pokémon. It's not a torture device! I'll show you." The white haired man pressed the white button on the PokéBall and tossed it onto the ground. The final starter – the water type, Piplup – appeared from the glow. "See? Perfectly okay!"

Lucas fell to his knees and hung his head in shame and embarrassment. The Piplup patted his shoulder in concern.

"Ummm, okay then. We'll just be going," Kylie said.

"Wait!" the Professor called, suddenly sounding serious. He approached Kylie and Aiden and put a hand on each of their shoulders. "Turtwig . . . and Chimchar, eh? Hmmmm . . ." He looked carefully at each Pokémon and their trainer as he said their names, appearing to be in deep thought. "Wonderful choices to fight! We shall march back to the lab to prepare for battle!" His pensive manner shattered as he adopted his "war general" persona again and resumed his march to Sandgem Town.

Lucas simply stared after the Professor for a moment before his mind caught up with him. He scooped up the Piplup and called after the Professor, "Wait for me!"

"Hop to, Lucas!"

This time he smiled slightly at the Professor's eccentric actions. "Thank you," he said to the two new trainers before he jogged off to catch up to the Professor.

Kylie sat on her bed just looking at the sleeping Turtwig curled up next to her. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself tell her mother about what happened just yet. Luckily, Pokémon in their PokéBalls were a lot easier to sneak upstairs than bowls of popcorn. She was mainly thinking about the weird surge of emotions she had felt near the lake. Normally, she always maintained her cool attitude, but something had been affecting her back there . . .

Suddenly, she yawned hugely and decided that it was time to go to bed. She carefully pulled down the covers so she could climb under without waking the Turtwig up. After turning the light out, she turned on her side so she could watch the Tiny Leaf Pokémon for a while. The sight of it got her thinking about the battle and the rush it had given her. It was so exciting; she couldn't wait to battle again. Before she fell asleep, she thought, '_maybe I'm more like Dad than I thought . . ._'

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><p>So, Professor Rowan . . . O.o Somehow, he just kinda came out like that. I really don't know what it was, but I swear I wasn't on drugs when I wrote that! (though maybe Rowan was . . .)<p>

Aaaaaaanyways, I've had about the worst week EVER, so leaving a review would really make me feel better!


	2. Chapter 2

Here's Part 2! Sorry it took so long. I just got caught up with a lot of stuff. Hope you like it. Tell me what you think!

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><p>Kylie sat at the breakfast table, staring into her cereal. The Rice Krispies had stopped cracking, snapping, and popping a long time ago and had become a soggy mess instead. She stirred her spoon around the bowl, causing the milk to break the pieces into mush, before she glanced up at her mother, who was prattling about which starter she should choose.<p>

"Well, for a coordinator Piplup is the ideal choice. It's very cute and water type attacks are simply beautiful and can pretty much be combined with any other type! There's some miraculous potential there! Of course, Chimchar is also quite the choice as well. Fire attacks are gorgeous and the energy Chimchar has is hard not to notice! The only choice I wouldn't recommend would be Turtwig. It can be quite cute, but doesn't have the charm the other two have."

"Mom, I've actually already picked my starter."

"Oh, you have? Which one are you going to get today?"

"I meant that I already have it."

Her mother's spoon fell from her hand and clattered into the bowl. "I knew you and Aiden were up to something yesterday. Don't tell me you couldn't wait just one day and went to Sandgem Town along?"

"No! We would do anything that risky!" Kylie assured her mom. _What we did was probably just as risky as that though!_' "We just went for a walk outside Twinleaf Town and we came across the Professor and his assistant. The Professor offered us the Pokémon early." So maybe she had twisted the truth a little bit, but her mother couldn't know what really happened.

"Oh, okay then. Well, which one did you pick? I can just see you with a Piplup! It would match your eyes so perfectly! Or a –"

"Actually, mom, I chose Turtwig." Okay, another twist. She didn't exactly choose it, but now that she had battled with it she wouldn't want another partner. And the way that her mother was glorifying the other starters would have made her pick the grass type just to spite her mother.

"Hmmm, not what I would have gone with, but I guess you just wanted a challenge! It's not easy to make beautiful or gorgeous appeals with a bunch of leaves, but –"

"Mom, I've said it before: I'm not becoming a coordinator. I'm going to be a trainer and battle gyms."

"But sweetie, there's so much violence down that road. Besides . . . you know what could happen –"

"I know, mom. But it's what I want to do. You can't shelter me forever."

Her mother got up from her side of the table, walked around next to Kylie, and pulled her into a hug. "I know, sweetie, but I had to try. I guess I was so focused on trying that I didn't notice you had already grown up."

Kylie simply smiled and hugged her mother back.

"When you first told me that you wanted to be a trainer, I thought of your father – all the losses and the pain and suffering he felt from them. I wanted to protect you from that, but this is what you want to do. And you've obviously been sure of that for years now. I just want to let you know that whatever happens, I'm proud of you!"

"Thanks, mom."

"Oh! I have something for you!" her mother exclaimed, pulling away and rushing to the counter. She took a wrapped box from the very back of the storage space and handed it to Kylie. "Happy birthday!"

Kylie eagerly ripped the paper off and threw the lid off the box. There were sparkles in her eyes when she saw the brand new running shoes. If there was one thing her mother knew how to do, it was pick out gifts! "Mom, I love them!" Kylie carefully took the shoes out of the box and gazed at them reverently.

"I knew you would! I was worried they wouldn't come in time because I had to re-order them since you didn't like the outfit I had for you and you picked out your own."

"Sorry, but I wasn't wearing that! I hate pink and skirts aren't very practical when you're traveling around." Kylie shuddered at the thought of what her mother was going to make her wear.

"It was a very cute outfit! Skyla liked it!"

"Skyla's a girly girl, of course she liked it."

"She's going to wear it when she gets her new Pokémon and goes on her own journey. The poor girl was so disappointed that she has to wait six months to wear it!"

Kylie was so glad that Skyla was several months younger than herself and Aiden (who was a month older than herself) so she ended up in a different Pokémon receival bracket. She pulled on the new shoes and noticed how well the colors really did go with her outfit. She wasn't exactly a fashion queen, but she did like it when her clothes actually matched. Thanking her mom and hugging her one more time, she headed out.

As she passed Aiden's house, his mother came running out the front door. "Kylie! Would you mind giving this to Aiden? He left in such a hurry that I didn't get a chance to give him his birthday present."

"No problem. I'll give it to him." Kylie took a wrapped package with a card attached to it from her.

"Thanks. Give that boy a good tongue lashing when you see him!"

"I'll be sure to," Kylie laughed. She put the parcel in her backpack as Aiden's mother headed back inside and she continued to her destination.

Kylie was feeling extremely confident as she walked into Sangem Town. She had easily defeated the Starly and Bidoof on Route 201 with the Turtwig and was impressed with the little guy's confidence boost. He was still shy when they passed other people on the route, though. Kylie was annoyed at those people for two reasons: one, they brought out the Tiny Leaf Pokémon's timid nature and two, they talked too much about stuff that she either already knew or didn't really care to know. One person had given her a potion though, which she knew would come in handy later on.

She approached the first building in town, which she knew was the Pokémon lab, and saw someone sitting outside, playing with a Piplup. As she got closer, she recognized it as Lucas. "Hi, Lucas," she greeted, stepping up to the lab.

"Oh, hey, Kylie. The Professor told me that was your name; I'm not creepy or anything," Lucas babbled as he quickly stood up, obviously a little flustered.

"That's okay. I'm sorry, again, about everything."

"It's really okay. As long as the Pokémon go to their rightful owners, I'm fine with it. Besides, you and that Turtwig seem really close already."

"Yeah, I guess we are."

"Kylieeeeee!" Aiden's familiar voice blared from the door of the lab. "You've just standing around talking for soooooooooo long! Get in here so the Prof. can get his show on the road. Then I can finally get _my_ show on the road!"

Kylie looked to see her best friend (his Chimchar on his shoulder) holding the door opening, somehow managing to glare at her and smile widely at the same time.

"Okay, okay. I'm coming." She and Lucas walked into the lab and followed Aiden to the back of the building. Two people in lab coats were working on machines and copying down data, apparently for some kind of experiment. A third lab-coated figure was standing at a table in the very back, delicately using a screwdriver to tighten the screw on a small red device.

"I'll be with you in a second . . . just got to finish one final adjustment – there! Now, allow me to introduce myself – I am Professor Rowan," he said as he turned around.

Kylie's eyes widened when she recognized the man as the Professor from yesterday. "Wait! _You're_ Professor Rowan!" She had read a lot about Professor Rowan and his research on Pokémon evolution. All those descriptions about him certainly didn't fit the crazy geezer she had seen yesterday.

"Ahem. Yes, that would be me. I'm afraid I must apologize for my behavior yesterday. Jet lag can do that to me!"

"That, among other things . . ." Lucas muttered quietly so only Kylie and Aiden could hear him cause them both to hide their giggles.

The Professor only cleared his throat. "Anyways, I want to check how you've been treating your Pokémon correctly so far, just to ensure that you can handle being a Trainer." He bent down to the Turtwig who was standing neat Kylie's feet. "So, Tyler, how is she?" he asked the Pokémon.

"She's really awesome, Professor!" he responded. "I feel like I've already gotten more confident!"

Kylie's mouth dropped open. She knew that Pokémon could be understood if they had developed a strong bond with a human, usually their trainer. Of course, she had hoped that the Turtwig would eventually be able to talk, but she never expected it to happen so fast.

"That's very good. And how about you, Ignatius?" the Professor asked, standing up and turning his attention to the Chimchar on Aiden's shoulder.

"You bet!" it replied with an enthusiastic voice. "No other trainer could possibly match my energy the way Aiden does!"

Aiden's smile widened even more, a feat Kylie didn't think was possible. The fact that his Pokémon could also be understood was another thing she didn't think was possible.

"That's good to hear! I'm glad that you two have found good trainers. Now, I have one more gift for you, Kylie and Aiden." The Professor picked up the red device he had been fiddling with when they walked in. "This is a PokéDex. It records data on Pokémon that you've seen or caught, among many other features, but I think I will allow you to discover those on your own. It will be very helpful to you during your journey, so I advise you to take good care of it."

"Wow! Thanks soooooooooo much, Professor. I'm gonna need all the help I can get." Aiden grabbed his PokéDex and immediately started playing around with it, Ignatius looking on eagerly from his shoulder.

"Thank you." Kylie took hers and looked at the screen. _What better way to figure out how to use it than to push a few buttons?_ she thought. After a few presses, she arrived at a screen that was asking her to scan a Pokémon. She held it over Tyler, pressed the 'scan' button, and watched as information about her Pokémon appeared on the screen.

'Species: Turtwig  
>Name: Tyler<br>Gender: Male  
>Nature: Timid<br>Place Obtained: Lake Verity  
>Level Obtained: 5'<p>

"That's my favorite feature on the PokéDex," Lucas said when he saw what Kylie had found. "It keeps track of all the Pokémon you've caught, where you caught them, and all of their information."

"Soooooooooo – can we leave now?"

"Aiden!" Kylie admonished her friend for his rudeness.

The Professor simply smiled. "It's okay. You are too much like your father to expect otherwise, Aiden."

Aiden had that weird glint in his eye that he got whenever his father was mentioned. Kylie was never too sure what it meant – that he was proud to hear that or if he didn't like being compared to him. She had met his father several times and he seemed like a really cool guy, but she knew that those times were some of the few that he was home; his job was similar to her own father's in that it caused him to be away from home for long periods of time. That was one of the main reasons that she and Aiden were able to connect so well. Before she could even finish her chain of thought or try to read into the glint more, Aiden had already bolted out of the lab.

"Aiden, wait!" she called after him, only just remembering the birthday present she had to deliver. "Oh, well," she sighed after she realized how far away he had already gotten. "He's too far away by now and so there's no point in chasing after him if I can enjoy the scenery . . ."

"Wow, that was fast," Lucas remarked. "He didn't even stay for my tour around town or Pokémon catching tutorial – both of which he said he wanted earlier!"

"Kylie, _you_ are a lot like your father as well." The Professor's tone was slightly serious even for his sober self. Kylie felt weird feelings at being compared to her father and wondered if it was how Aiden felt. The illusion was destroyed the next moment, however. "Well then, why don't you show Kylie around instead, Lucas?" The suggestion was coupled with a sly smile as he pushed the two teenagers out the door. "You two have fun!" The lab door closed behind them, muffling Rowan's laughter a little bit.

"Sometimes . . . I hate that man."

"You really don't mean that, do you? The Professor's a great man and I know you respect him a lot." Kylie could find that she was only slightly surprised when the Piplup contradicted Lucas's complaint.

"That's not what I meant, Eilert. He's just extremely annoying at times, like right now."

Kylie could only smile at their exchange. It seemed that her and Aiden were not the only ones to develop strong bonds with their starter Pokémon.

When Lucas called his Pokémon into its PokéBall, she did the same and let Lucas guide her around town. He showed her the Pokémon Center and PokéMart and explained a bit about the services they offered to trainers. She already knew all the information but she didn't want to hurt his feelings, especially when he seemed to be in his element spouting information.

When he mentioned something about going to Route 201 to catch a Pokémon, she started really paying attention and readily agreed. "Catching a Pokémon may seem simple, but besides the actual action of it, it's actually quite complicated. Pokémon are wary – and smart – creatures. If you engage in a battle with a wild Pokémon, the others in the area will take notice and will observe your battle. If you try to catch that Pokémon the others will know enough to avoid any PokéBalls you throw at them, whether you caught that one or not, so don't waste any on them. If you don't try to catch it, there are two things that have to happen: you can defeat it or run away from it. The other wild Pokémon will then see you as ruthless or a coward; either way their not gonna like you too much, so it's not a good idea to attempt to capture them because they'll disobey you. So, to sum it all up, the first Pokémon you encounter on a route is the only logical catch to make on that route."

Kylie felt as if her head is spinning. "That's a long explanation for something that could be summed up in one sentence," she deadpanned.

Lucas seemed to deflate at her statement. "I was just making sure you understood everything . . ."

Kylie felt herself feeling extremely bad about her remark. She didn't really mean to say it out loud, but she felt more irritated than she normally would be and was now feeling worse than she normally would for making a hurtful comment. It was similar to what had happened at the lake the day before. "Sorry. It really did help."

Lucas smiled slightly. "It's okay. Anyways, the best way to learn is to do. So just walk into the grass and see what comes out. Oh, here, these will probably be helpful," Lucas said as he handed her some PokéBalls.

"Thanks. All right, let's do it, Tyler!" She called her Pokémon out of its PokéBall and walked into the grass. It didn't take long for a Bidoof to pop out in front of her. It was quickly weakened by a few tackles from her trusty sidekick and easily captured in one of the PokéBalls. "Yes!"

"Good job. How does it feel to catch your first Pokémon?"

"Awesome."

"So now you can check its information on that PokéDex feature you found earlier."

Kylie pulled out said device and scanned the PokéBall.

'Species: Bidoof  
>Name: Unknown<br>Gender: Female  
>Nature: Quiet<br>Place Obtained: Route 201  
>Level Obtained: 3'<p>

"Cool, it's a girl!" Kylie exclaimed. "But she doesn't have a name yet. I have no idea what to call her . . . what do you think, Tyler."

"Hmm, I like . . . 'Sally'," Tyler said.

"Me, too." Kylie put that information into the Dex. Satisfied she recalled Tyler to his ball and hooked both to her belt. "Thanks, Lucas!" she said as they started to walk back to the lab.

"No problem! The first gym is in Oreburgh City, but you'll need to go through Jubilife City to get there. Just go north from Sandgem Town to get to Jubilife and then east from there, but don't rush right through! There's so much to see and do in Jublife City."

Kylie didn't have any real interest in the big city. The hustle and bustle it promised reminded her of Contest Halls, but she knew that Aiden would be entranced by everything that she disliked about cities since he had hardly been out of Twinleaf Town. It would be her best bet of finding him and giving him the present. "That sounds good. I hope I'll see you later." Kylie was a bit surprised to find that the last sentence was completely genuine. She enjoyed Lucas's company and helpful advice.

"Yeah, you too. Good luck!" Lucas was smiling also. Since he spent a lot of time helping his parents and the Professor in the lab, he didn't really talk to many kids his age. He was glad to find that he really connected with Kylie and Aiden. _Even if one of them totally ditched me_, he couldn't help but think as he waved to Kylie as she headed off to Route 202.

He headed in the lab and the door had no sooner closed behind him when he heard the Professor ask, "So, how was your date?"

"You had a date!" his mother immediately asked, whipping around from her research to stare at him.

"It wasn't a date!" Lucas thought he was gonna die of embarrassment. He was just glad that Kylie was out of earshot at that point.

'Species: Shinx  
>Name: Luther<br>Gender: Male  
>Nature: Brave<br>Place Obtained: Route 202  
>Level Obtained: 3'<p>

"That's an incredibly kickass name, Tyler."

"Isn't it?"

Kylie and Tyler were walking into Jubilife City, discussing Kylie's catch on Route 202. The blue electric Pokémon had practically pounced on her and Tyler as they, scaring the wits out of the poor grass type Pokémon and forcing Kylie to use Sally to weaken it so she could catch it. Tyler made up for it by coming up with an awesome name, though.

Kylie felt herself growing more and more anxious about being in the city. She just wanted to find Aiden as quickly as possible so she could leave. The PokéCenter being the most obvious place to check, she headed there first. After healing her Pokémon, she confirmed that Aiden wasn't there. She tried to ask several people around town if they had seen him – even in a big city he wasn't likely to go unnoticed or be forgotten easily – but they only insisted that she go to the Pokémon Trainer's School since she was a rookie trainer. Finally annoyed by the amount of times it was mentioned to her, she headed to the School. Surprisingly, Aiden was in there, standing in front of the chalkboard. Glad her trip wasn't pointless she approached him.

"You, actually learning!" she said in a fake-appalled tone.

"Hey! You are sooooooooo mean."

"And you're rude. You left the Professor's lab without even saying goodbye to me."

"Stop being a drama queen. I wanted to look around the city and I knew I couldn't do that if I was with you."

"Who's the mean one now?"

"Still you because you wouldn't have wanted to do any sightseeing."

"You're right there; I wouldn't have wanted to do any sightseeing."

"Well, since I'm done with my sightseeing, how about we have a battle!"

"Sounds good, but let me give you something first." Kylie pulled the parcel from his mom out of her bag. "This is your birthday present from you mom."

"Oh, I forgot that she was waiting until I left on my journey to give me my present."

"I'm surprised you forgot. You complained about not having your present yet pretty much every day," Kylie commented as she watched Aiden rip the paper off the box. He threw the lid to the floor and pulled out the item that was inside it.

"It's a map. She knows how I get lost soooooooooo easily!"

"Yeah, I'm surprised you got this far."

"Shut up." Aiden then turned to the card. Below the sweet message from his mom she had wrote a 'p.s.' telling him to give the extra map to Kylie as a birthday present because she knew that he had forgotten to get her one. He couldn't help but think that his mom knew him too well. He searched the box and found another wrapped package that was the same size as the map. "Happy Birthday!" he exclaimed somewhat sheepishly as he handed it to her.

Kylie's wry smile only confirmed his suspicions that she knew exactly what had happened. "Thanks. What ever could it be." she "wondered" in a voice that clearly intoned she knew exactly what it was.

"Now that that's over with, we can have our battle!" Aiden opened the cover of the case that held the map and pointed to an area just outside of Jubilife City – Route 203. "Let's meet there to battle. I don't think that they would like us destroying their building very much. You can use your map to find it!" he joked.

"Haha, very funny, but I don't think I'll need a map to find it. You, however, should keep yours out."

"Whatever, I'll still beat you there! And you better not take too long, or I'll have to fine you $10 million this time!" With that Aiden sprinted out of the Trainer's School, nearly knocking over several students and a teacher who was carrying a stack of papers.

Kylie simply sighed. Counting on the fact that he was likely to get distracted by many things before he got to the Route himself, she decided she had some time. Looking at the map herself, she decided to check out Route 204 and maybe catch a new Pokémon before battling Aiden.

By the time she swung by the PokéCenter to heal up her Pokémon before battling Aiden, it was already quite late. _Looks like we have just enough time for that battle with Aiden before we have to find someplace to sleep for the night. I wasted a lot of time finding those stupid clowns. But it was totally worth it._ She admired her latest gadget – a brand new, red Pokétch – that was strapped to her wrist.

After she healed her Pokémon and arranged to spend the night at the PokéCenter, she decided to check her two latest catches.

'Species: Starly  
>Name: Stephan<br>Gender: Male  
>Nature: Hardy<br>Place Obtained: Route 204  
>Level Obtained: 4'<p>

'Species: Zubat  
>Name: Cronin<br>Gender: Male  
>Nature: Naughty<br>Place Obtained: Ravenged Path  
>Level Obtained: 5'<p>

She kept both of them on her belt, but they would need serious training if they hoped to catch up with the rest of their team, but that would have to wait until after battling Aiden. Kylie left the Pokémon Center and hurried to Route 203. The hyperactive blond was waiting for her just outside the city.

"What took you soooooooooo long! I've been waiting for_ever_!"

"I got sidetracked . . . a couple of times."

"That's not an excuse. Anyways, it only gave me more time to train so I'm stronger than I would've been if you had been here on time! Ha! Your procrastination has backfired!"

"Hmph. Let's just battle."

"Agreed! I'm gonna use the first Pokémon that I caught!"

"Then so will I!"

Aiden's first catch turned out to be a Starly. He could only laugh at Kylie's first catch. "A Bidoof! That's unfortunate!"

"Shut up, Aiden! Sally's awesome. You'll see once we totally beat your Starly into the ground!"

"Yeah right! Sullivan, use Quick Attack."

Kylie countered with Tackle and Aiden kept having his Starly use Quick Attack. She deduced his strategy was to get attacks in before the opponent's Pokémon could deal similar damage, thus resulting in it K.O.-ing first. The only problem was that Sally was at a higher level and simply had more H.P. After only three Tackles, the battle was over rather quickly.

"Come on, Aiden. I thought you could do better than that!"

"I can do better! Wait until you see Ignatius!"

"Oh, yeah! Wait until you see Tyler!"

With that, both rookie trainers sent out their starter Pokémon. Kylie knew that a Chimchar at Ignatius's level would know fire attacks, which could deal serious damage to her grass type, but she would simply recall him before anything _really_ bad could happened. Besides, she knew Aiden would _neve__r_ allow it to escalate that far.

Then why did she have a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach . . .

* * *

><p>As always, R&amp;R!<p> 


End file.
